Rebuilding Flyers fire John Tortorella as coach

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The Philadelphia Flyers have fired coach John Tortorella as the team spiraled toward missing the playoffs for the fifth straight season and one of the worst records in the Eastern Conference.

The Flyers (28-39-6) announced Tortorella's dismissal Thursday and said associate coach Brad Shaw would take over as interim head coach.

"Today I made the very difficult decision to move on from John as our head coach," Flyers general manager Daniel Briere said in a statement. "John played a vital role in our rebuild. He set a standard of play and re-established what it means to be a Philadelphia Flyer. ... As we move into the next chapter of this rebuild, I felt this was the best for…